Pictures
by FragileYetEerie
Summary: It's amazing how much a simple mistake can change one's life. If only Ciel Phantomhive had never pressed 'send', then maybe his life wouldn't be so terribly messed up now. Then again, had he never sent those pictures, he might have never gotten to know Sebastian Michaelis. / AU & OOC


**Hey everyone! So here I am again with an idea that's been on my mind for quite some time now. And guess what, I already know the plot for a change, which means that I'll be updating this one more regularly.. I hope. **

**As mentioned in the description, Sebastian and Ciel are pretty OOC.  
**

**And no, I don't own Kuroshitsuji. **

**Enjoy, hopefully!**

* * *

"Haha, look at that. I mean, it's normal for girls to take nudes, but seriously, as a guy?"

"Are you talking about that kid with the blue hair from our high school, two years or so younger than us?"

"Exactly, can you believe how some 15-year-old boy would do something like this? It's obvious he desperately wants attention though, just look at his hair.. God, if such pictures of me were online, I'd probably throw myself off some bridge or something. I heard that he's gay, too. And someone mentioned that there weren't only pictures but also videos online. "

"Hey Sebastian, look at this", a white haired girl laughed, addressing the boy sitting next to her on the couch. When the older teenager didn't answer, she instead punched his arm playfully, causing the raven to turn around with a scowling face, annoyed at once again being disturbed while listening to music. People just seemed to have that habit of wanting to talk to him exactly then when he didn't feel the need to communicate at all.

Sebastian took off his headphones, red eyes focusing on the bright cell phone display being held right in front of his face, expecting some sort of 'funny' picture Angela found on Facebook or something, like usually. Since the room they were sitting in was rather dark, it took a moment until his eyes fully focused on the screen. It showed a person standing in front of a mirror, taking a picture with their phone.

The first thing he noticed was the bright blue hair, chin length, with some longer locks that almost reached the bony shoulders. The hair looked messy and some of it fell into the heart-shaped face, covering one of the eyes. He then took a closer look at the one visible eye. Its deep blue color matched the hair's. The eye was the only thing that brought some color into the otherwise pale face but if you looked more closely, it became visible that it was swollen and red, as if from crying. Or maybe he had some sort of allergy, Sebastian mused. But the black bags underneath the eye only assisted in making it look like something bad must have happened before the picture had been taken. But then again, maybe he was just reading too much into it.

Sebastian bit his lip. He didn't like the look on the young boy's face at all.. He had never seen a smile that was so obviously fake.

And one second later, as Sebastian's eyes eventually slid down the thin, small body, it became obvious that something was indeed very wrong with the boy in the picture. He was thin, incredibly so, and it looked almost unhealthy. The flat stomach was stained with a few dark spots; bruises, presumably. They didn't look fresh though, it was just a faded hint of blue and purple on otherwise white skin, and they definitely weren't that easy to notice, and yet, they were there, undeniably.

But that wasn't what bothered Sebastian the most when he looked at the picture.

The boy who looked even younger than he himself was completely naked. He automatically let his eyes wander to these long, lean legs before he could stop himself. However, as soon as they moved upwards to the crotch, he forced himself to look away, confusion and shock written all over his face as he looked at his friend questioningly.

"What. The. Hell?" the raven took a deep breath as he noticed that the girl didn't seem to understand the cause of his shock at all. He spoke up again, "Angela why are you showing me a picture of some naked, underage boy? Why do you have something like that on your phone in the first place?" He swallowed to get that dry feeling in his throat to go away. It didn't quite work.

"Geez, what's up with you? That's just some little attention whore from school, why are you freaking out like that? It's not my fault the kid decides to send these pics to everyone," she defended herself, having expected another reaction from the older boy who wasn't known to be all too innocent either. "Besides, it's not like you have never laughed this kind of stuff, why would this be any different now?"

Sebastian looked at her without an expression on his face, red eyes blank. She was right, he himself had never been one to actually defend someone who was being picked on by others. On the contrary, he couldn't necessarily say that it made him proud but in most cases, he would even be the one who put someone else down. There were two types of people, the hunter and the hunted if you will, and he definitely didn't consider himself a victim of any sort.

But why had his initial reaction to this picture been to defend the small boy with the blue hair? Was it like when a dog instinctively defended a small puppy?

Sebastian cringed at the thought of those animals. He really prefered cats. Besides, the boy had nothing in common with a dog except maybe those puppy eyes.

"Yeah, I just.." it took him a moment to come up with something that his friends would expect him to say, "this is freaking disgusting, you don't have to hold a picture of some anorexic little fag right in front of my face, I really could've done without seeing this, you know?"

"Aw c'mon, don't you think he's pretty cute?"Ash, Angela's twin brother, asked only to break out into laughter afterwards.

Sebastian chuckled darkly although he didn't think it was funny. _What the fuck is wrong with me? Why do I even feel some sort of pity for that guy? This actually is quite laughable, pathetic even.  
_

However, something about this picture had captured Sebastian's attention, he couldn't just brush it off as easily as he usually did.

"But seriously, this guy is from our school? I've never seen him there before and I bet I would've noticed, I mean blue hair isn't that common around here and our school is not that big..", he said, honestly confused as to why he had no clue who the boy was. Their school really wasn't a big one and since all of them lived in a rather rural area, one would expect to have at least seen everyone once, especially when they stood out in the mass of people, which that boy obviously did. Also, Sebastian wasn't the type to forget faces and even if he hadn't had this hair color before, he was pretty sure he would remember _that_ face.

"Yeah, I've seen him around a few times, usually all by himself though. Well it's not much of a surprise, who'd want to be friends with such a weird guy?" Ash explained, a look of disgust on his face as he talked about the younger teenager.

Sebastian nodded, a thoughtful look on his face.

"Whatever, guys. I think that's been enough slander for today. You know what? It's getting warmer outside, does anyone want to go swimming in the lake this weekend?" Joker, Sebastian's best friend interrupted in a cheerful tone. He always seemed to be in a good mood. Joker was usually the one who organized all the things they did together as a group; be it parties, sleepovers, camping trips or whatever he came up with. He had always been like that, ever since Sebastian could remember; Joker was the one with the ideas and Sebastian was the one who complained about having to socialize at first but always ended up complying and having a good time with his friends.

And easy as that, the redhead had effectively changed the subject and no one wasted another thought on the young teenager as the group chatted about their plans for the weekend.  
No one, except Sebastian who couldn't seem to get this young face with the sullen expression out of his head.

* * *

It had been more than a week since Sebastian had seen the photo and it would be a lie to say that he hadn't kept an eye open to see if he would spot the younger somewhere at school. But he had no such luck.

_Maybe he called in sick, it wouldn't be much of a surprise after so many people at school have seen him naked. _

Sebastian still wasn't sure what exactly it was, but somehow the picture of the boy seemed to be burned into his brain, the more he tried not to thing about it, the more it demanded his attention. Needless to say, he had been on edge all week. Sebastian Michaelis did not _care _about others. He had never been one to worry too much about someone and even when it came to his friends, he couldn't say that he was too concerned with their little problems. Sure, if something serious happened to them he would try and help, but he wasn't anyone's mother and in the end, everyone had to get along without having to rely on anyone's help.

He briefly wondered if he thought about it that way because his father had been in the army and instead of hearing loving words everyday as a child, he had been told stories about war and how you couldn't have pity with anyone because none of your enemies would pity you either when it came down to it. Yes, maybe it had been some sort of childhood trauma.. Or well, maybe he just wasn't born to be the caring type. Whatever, his father was dead now and dwelling on those old stories didn't exactly help to brighten his mood.

Besides, Sebastian couldn't even say that he _cared_ about the boy. For all he knew, he had awakened some sort of interest in him. Not in a perverted way, it was more that he wanted to know just exactly why the boy had looked so utterly.. broken on the picture. Maybe Sebastian was a bit sadistic or maybe it was just the fact that morbid and broken things somehow appealed to him, whatever it was, there was definitely something to this boy that made him want to know more about him. For all he knew, he could actually be just another teenager who somehow wanted to get attention by any means necessary, but something told him that this wasn't the case at all.

He really wanted to hit his head against the grey wall next to him.

Sebastian had never been too good at school. Not that he wasn't clever. And he wasn't lazy either. There's a difference between being too lazy to do anything and just not giving a damn about homework assignments and grades. And he could really care less.

The bell rang and Sebastian was actually glad that his negative thoughts were interrupted. He hadn't even bothered to take his stuff out of his bag at the beginning of the lesson and therefore he didn't have to gather anything. Standing up, the 17-year-old looked out of the window. It looked like it would start raining soon, rain clouds darkening the sky. He couldn't say that he disliked rain, it was more enjoyable than sunshine, that much he knew for sure.

Everyone had already begun chatting with each other, leaving their teacher to try and yell loud enough so everyone would understand what the homework assignment was, but the woman wasn't the authoritarian type and as soon as she noticed that no one even payed attention anyway, she quit even trying and instead picked up her bag and hurried to leave the room. Sebastian watched with a slightly amused expression. How this woman got the idea to teach teenagers for a living, he'd never understand.

He turned back to the look at the others and as he turned to leave, he noticed Joker walking in his direction, the usual smirk on the redhead's lips.

"Sebastian are you gonna come to the cafeteria and eat lunch with us?" he asked, motioning to the others who usually hung out with them.

"Yeah but I'm gonna go outside first to get some fresh air before the rain starts, I'll be there in ten minutes or so. My head hurts a little," the raven explained, not wanting to reject his friend. But he really did need a few minutes alone and some cold, fresh air wouldn't hurt either.

"Okay, see you then," the other waved but Sebastian had already walked past him, making his way through the crowded hallways. Well, there weren't even that many people but not being in the best of moods, there were still enough for him to feel annoyed by them. Like he would drown if he had to spend another minute in that building with all these people. He inwardly cursed that blue haired boy for messing with his head so much, Sebastian just really wanted to know the story behind the picture, the story behind the boy. Or at the very least, he wanted to know his name. But he hadn't known whom to ask and besides, it might have come across the wrong way if he asked for the name of a boy who he'd only ever seen naked on a picture.

Sebastian left the old building and made his way through the almost empty schoolyard and past the parking lot. Their school was situated right next to the forest and since it hadn't rained yet, the raven haired boy decided to sit in the grass with his back leaned against a rather tall tree, facing the fields and the forest nearby. He shortly debated on listening to music but decided against it, finding to quietness way too enjoyable. He closed his eyes tiredly and sighed as a cool breeze caressed his skin. Somewhere behind him on the parking lot he could hear voiced but he didn't pay them any mind. All the underage smokers usually gathered there, convinced that nobody would find out about it. Sebastian almost chuckled at the thought. How utterly ridiculous.

He let his eyes drift back to the forest. The trees had just become green again after a rather cold winter and it was refreshing to see some color outside, not just black and white.

* * *

"Hey, what the hell are you doing here again? I thought you'd left the school?" a large boy with dark brown hair yelled aggressively.

_If someone says something mean, just look straight ahead and walk past them. Do nothing to provoke them, please. _Elizabeth's words echoed in Ciel's mind as he made his way over the school's parking lot, hugging himself tightly in order to not freeze to death. How was it still so cold in April? He tried to not think about the group of teenagers standing just a few feet away as he got closer to the school entrance. He tried to ignore the comment. How had these guys even recognized him that fast?

He was wearing an oversized, black hoodie, the hood effectively covering his oddly colored hair. He had definitely thought about just dying it a black color again, but in all honesty, what difference would it even make? It was not like everyone would just forget about what had happened just because he'd spontaneously decide to fall in line. On the contrary. Pretty much any obvious change he'd make at the moment was just another potential reason for the others to put him down. So his hair would stay as it was for now.

"Hey, we're talking to you!"

Ciel bit his lower lip and closed his eyes as he tried to get away from them, making larger steps and hurrying to get away, but it was to no avail.

Of course. Just 10 more seconds and he would have been on school grounds, which didn't exactly guarantee safety either but there would have been people around probably and maybe then nothing would happen. But it was not like Ciel had such luck, he never seemed to, in fact. A pair of hands had already grabbed him from behind, and not too gently, either.

He was being spun around until he faced the boys, some his age, some older than him. All of them taller, naturally.

"Well, but I wasn't talking to you, so you'd better let me go this instant," he spat, not intending on backing down now that he knew he was most likely going to be beaten up anyway. Ciel had always had the habit of acting strong when he really wasn't.

The others faked a shocked expression and out of nowhere, a fist hit the pale face, hard, making the hood fall off the young boy's head. Ciel instinctively raised a hand to touch his face where he had been hit, angry tears threatening to overflow from big, blue eyes. He closed his eyes and let out a shaky breath, pink lips slightly parted. He didn't want to cry, he really didn't. But the shock of the sudden hard fist hitting his face had been way too sudden for him to control his tears any longer. Before he knew, a steady flow of hot tears was running down his face and Ciel clenched his fists, more than angry at himself.

The boys who had by now all gathered around him started laughing at the display of the young boy, who had been talking back to them just a few moments ago, now crying.

"Oh god, you're such a fucking faggot," a blonde boy from Ciel's class laughed at him and the others joined in.

"Shut up. Don't call me that," Ciel whispered quietly, but loud enough for the boys to hear him it seemed, as he was greeted with another fist, this time hitting his mouth, making the bitter taste of iron appear on his tongue.

And then, another fist followed, aiming for his stomach instead of his head this time and making the small boy hiss in pain as he leaned forward to hug his stomach. On his thin body, the punches had even more of an effect and he almost blacked out due to the pain as another brunette kicked him in the stomach this time, barely missing his head since he was still leaning down and somewhat curled in on himself.

Breathing didn't come to him quiet as easily anymore and Ciel feared he might get an asthma attack soon if they'd continue on with this.

"I don't think you're in the position to tell us to shut up, you little disgusting whore, you understand?" Another blow in his stomach followed and Ciel was pretty sure there were going to be quite a few bruises, hopefully no broken rip or anything. The group laughed again and even if he had tried to ignore it before, there was no mistaking it now. A certain male's laughter within the crowd had him closing his eyes tightly, not even wanting to see the other. That much for not backing down. He'd been beaten up before but for some reason, he couldn't seem to deal with this combination of emotional and physical pain. A strong arm then pushed him and, being the lightweight he was, Ciel immediately lost balance and fell, hitting the floor with a painful thud, the hoodie thankfully cushioning his fall a little but it sure didn't help a lot. With one last kick in his stomach, the boys went off, leaving a barely conscious Ciel laying there on the cold concrete. Tears were now flowing down his face freely once again and his body involuntarily jerked with violent sobs.

* * *

To say that Sebastian hadn't been astonished by the small boy's answers would have been a lie. Despite his quiet, feminine voice, he had actually been talking back to a group of at least eight taller boys.

At first, Sebastian had just listened to the conversation taking place behind him, not caring too much whether some idiots got into a fight or not. But something about the sound of a punch followed by a quiet sobbing had stirred something inside him. And before he knew it, his eyes were once again focused on the person he had been trying to get out of his mind for the last few days. He could only see a part of that pale face and some of the blue hair that looked even brighter in the daylight, since the view was blocked by some of the taller boys, having circled the small figure. The boy wasn't looking in Sebastian's direction and nobody else seemed to have noticed him standing in the grass not too far away, watching the scene unfold.

Sebastian wasn't sure what to do. Something inside told him that he had to help the boy, but at the same time, he hated the fact that he felt that way. It wasn't like him, he wasn't some over protective mother hen and besides, he didn't know the boy at all. Also, he had gotten himself into that trouble by talking back to them, or so Sebastian told himself as he regarded the boys punching him until someone eventually pushed him and the teenager fell to the floor. Something about the sound made Sebastian snap out of his trance as he realized what he had just let happen.

He could have stopped them, he could have even brushed it off as nothing but being nice, nobody would have to know that it would have had to do more with the boy who was being assaulted rather than with Sebastian's strong sense of justice or anything. But he hadn't. And only now as the boy lay there on the cold floor, sobbing quietly, he actually decided to help. Well, if he could even help him anymore now.

Sebastian carefully put one foot in front of the other, eyes locked on the mess these guys had made out of the blue haired teenager, as he walked in the boys direction. He had never been good at comforting people and for a short moment, Sebastian pondered turning around and walking away. Maybe the boy would be alright without his help.

But as a drop of rain hit his face, followed by another, he took this as a clue that he couldn't just let the smaller one lay there in the cold, especially if it would start raining more now.

As he reached the tiny body, Sebastian still had no clue what exactly he was supposed to do or how he was supposed to help. When the boy didn't react, either not having heard the footsteps approaching him, or having chosen to ignore them, Sebastian did the first thing he could think of.

He nudged him gently, an uncharacteristic thing for Sebastian to do.

The boy lay with his face down, seemingly having turned around and no longer in the position he was in immediately after falling. Blue hair hung down the sides of his face, blocking the view of his face. The oversized hoodie looked more of a greyish color now, covered in dust from laying on the street. It must have been several sizes too big as the boy seemed to be practically drowning in the dark fabric. Sebastian once again remembered the picture; the boy really was way too thin and having him laying there right in front of him, it seemed even more noticable. Or maybe the picture had been taken some time ago and the boy had actually lost more weight since then? However, now wasn't the time to question such things, Sebastian mused.

The boy had yet to react to his touch and for a second, Sebastian feared the worst. He instantly reached out to lay a hand flat on the clothed back, relieved when he felt the body moving underneath his touch. Of course, it wasn't that noticable, he was after all touching his back and not his chest, but the boy was breathing steadily.

Sebastian let out the breath he had been holding up until now. A mumbled voice caught his attention and the black haired boy was so startled for a moment that he didn't even know whose it was. He looked around, they were all alone. But wasn't the boy unconscious?

As if to confirm that he wasn't, the smaller of the two spoke up again, his voice small and barely audible, and Sebastian had to lean closer to the boy's face in order to understand the last few words of what he was saying.

"..off my back, it hurts you idiot."

His hand was removed from the boy's back so fast, it almost looked like he had burned it and pulled it away out of reflex.

"I'm sorry, I just.." Sebastian trailed off, not knowing what to say. What was he even doing here? What could he say?  
"Are you alright?" he asked, as if he couldn't tell by looking at the boy that he was definitely _not_ alright.

Silence followed and Sebastian almost feared that he wouldn't even get an answer.

"Who are you?" the words weren't quite as hard to understand this time, but the voice still didn't sound like that of the boy who had gotten into a verbal fight with the others earlier, at all.

"My name's Sebastian. Sebastian Michaelis. And you are..?" the taller of the two asked smoothly.

"What do you want from me?" the response came and the sound of those harsh words spoken with a hard voice that didn't seem to belong to a broken little boy anymore, slightly surprised Sebastian.

The younger of the two carefully turned to his side, deciding that he wouldn't be able to stand up yet. He tried to hold back a whine as his whole body seemed to protest against the movement. Those big eyes were shut tightly in pain but Sebastian could recognize the face from the photo nonetheless. Even though this time, someone had made quite the mess out of it. Those pale lips were partially covered in blood, which also ran down the side of his face. The rather thin, small nose had started bleeding too, covering even more parts of the white, soft looking skin in crimson.

Sebastian could only stare as those eyes slowly fluttered open, and he felt like he was looking straight into the saddest eyes in the whole world. Maybe it was because of that deep blue color, maybe it was because the boy had been crying for quite some time now, whatever it was, the hurt in them was so obvious that the boy's attempt to pull off an indifferent face after his eyes had shortly widened to an almost comical extent, was quite futile in Sebastian's opinion.

The second Ciel had opened his eyes, he had been utterly shocked. Of all people, he wouldn't have the boy kneeling in front of him expected to look like _this. _It was not like he really knew the older teenager with the black hair and those oddly colored eyes, he had seen him around sometimes, but he would have never expected someone older than him, and not to mention someone rather popular, as far as he knew, to even bother and look at him as he lay there, bleeding on the parking lot. Was the guy one of the boys who had been beating him up minutes ago? Did he have a bad conscience now or something? Why didn't he answer?

After an initial moment of shock, Ciel tried to put on his mask of indifference again, not wanting to appear even weaker in front of whoever this Sebastian was than he already did, probably.

"I don't want anything, I saw you laying on the floor and didn't know if you were even alive or not, so I thought it might be a good idea to see if you're alright," Sebastian explained, the slightest bit of sarcasm in his voice. He could understand why the boy wouldn't trust someone who just came along after probably being bullied for some time now.. It wouldn't make sense to expect the boy to even trust him the tiniest bit. However, the fact that he actually didn't have any hidden motive or second thought this time, but that the boy had still assumed so, would have made him upset if it wasn't for the look on that face as the boy seemed to understand what he had said and his expression softened, or maybe Sebastian just convinced himself that it had.

"So, you don't know who I am?" the younger asked, his mood seeming to have actually changed a lot within just a few seconds. If Sebastian didn't know any better, he'd probably say that there was an almost hopeful expression on his face, as though the boy hadn't expected anyone at their school to not have heard of what had happened. Well, Sebastian really didn't know a lot about it, but he sure as hell had seen the photo.

However, looking back into that heart shaped face, he couldn't bring himself to actually say it out loud.

"No, I don't think I've seen you before. And to be honest, I would probably remember you. Don't get this wrong, but you aren't that easy to overlook."

* * *

**If you've come this far, this either means that you liked it or maybe you just thought it was so bad that it was funny. Whatever it is, thanks for reading. **

**And feel free to review, I love reviews. Especially those with constructive criticism. :3 **

**btw. I will try to update Go to hell for heaven's Sake anytime soon, but I've been having trouble writing it for some reason. **

**Bye, have a wonderful day! ~**


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